We all know those who plan diets, juice cleanses, and marathon exercise sessions to prep for the annual day of gluttony. But according to Harley Pasternak, bestselling author, nutritionist, and celebrity trainer, this "pre-tox" strategy has no benefit...and it could actually backfire.

More From ELLE

Pasternak's exact words when we mentioned the above pre-feast strategies? "Oh, wow. Well, that sounds like an eating disorder to me!"

"There shouldn't be a pre-gorge plan of action," he continued. "You should just enjoy it, embrace it—it's Thanksgiving! We should have flexibility in our lives to enjoy the special days and Thanksgiving is one of them."

• Don't skip meals earlier in the day in anticipation of the feast. You'll be ravenous when you get to the party and will be more likely to binge. Have some protein and fiber to fill you up beforehand.

• When you get there, the first thing you should do is hit the crudités, rather than the cheese puffs. Pasternak said when you load up on fatty appetizers, you're more likely to crave the starchy, sugary side dishes later—like your grandma's famous marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes. (Mmm, marshmallows for dinner!)

• Once it's time to sit down for the cornucopia of food, immediately grab some salad and vegetables. Add lean protein—that would be the turkey—and go easy on the starchy potatoes.

• Don't pile your plate up on the first go-around. Instead, tell yourself you'll go back for seconds. "When you go back up there again, you're not quite as hungry as you were the first time and won't put as much on your plate," Pasternak said.

But let's say you totally disregard all this helpful advice, get thirds on stuffing, and finish your boyfriend's piece of pie, as well as your own. First of all, don't be so hard on yourself.

"We need to get out of that mindset of trying to undo what we've done," Pasternak said. "You haven't done any damage to yourself. It's one meal."

Well, what about a juice cleanse for a few days? "No, no, no, no! Juice cleanses are bad—juice cleanses are horrible for you!" Pasternak said. "There's a program I condone called The Body Reset Diet. But having one big meal does not necessitate doing a whole reset of your metabolism."

The same goes for exercise. Planning a two-hour workout the next day (we plead guilty to this one...) will have the opposite effect of what you intended. "There's a direct relationship between the intensity of cardio and appetite. What you're inevitably doing is making yourself hungrier," Pasternak said.

So give yourself a break and don't do anything extreme. "That's why we are where we are in this country," Harley said. "We swing the pendulum too wide."